This invention relates to woodwind instruments of the clarinet family, and, more particularly, to an improved technique for fingering the B flat (Bb) note on clarinets.
As is well known, the modern clarinet is a woodwind instrument having a basically cylindrical bore although some sections are conical, and is played by a single-reed mouthpiece. Notes in a fundamental scale of the instrument are produced by uncovering various vent holes normally covered by the fingers or by spring-biased pads. The fundamental scale is extended by "overblowing" the instrument, whereby the frequency of vibration of the air column in the instrument is approximately tripped, and the notes obtained are a twelfth, or about an octave and a half, above the corresponding notes in the fundamental scale. Overblowing is facilitated by opening a small register hole near the top of the instrument, using a register key operated by the thumb of the left hand.
In order to obtain the third-line Bb on the clarinet, i.e., the Bb written as the third line from the bottom of the musical staff in the treble clef, a player must vent either one of two holes in the instrument while simultaneously operating a key known as the throat A key. One of these two holes is the register hole, but when it is used in combination with throat A key, it provides only an approximation of the Bb note. Since the thumb-operated register key for uncovering the register hole can be easily depressed without moving any of the other fingers, it provides a convenient way of obtaining the Bb note, even in difficult passages which require all of the fingers to be on or near their corresponding finger-holes. Unfortunately, however, this technique for obtaining the Bb note is not entirely satisfactory. Because the register hole is reduced in size and is not in the proper position for a Bb, but rather is intended to serve primarily as a means for effecting register changes in the instrument, the Bb obtained is unsatisfactory in both pitch and timbre, or tone quality.
For a more pure and satisfactory Bb note, a clarinet also includes a Bb hole, which is vented by depressing a key known as a trill key or side Bb key on the side of the instrument. The problem with this technique is that the side Bb key must be operated by the first finger of the right hand, and the key can not be reached without removing the finger, at least temporarily, from its position over the finger-hole. Consequently, the side Bb key is easy to operate only in passages which do not require the presence of the fingers of the right hand over their corresponding finger-holes, either immediately before or immediately after the Bb note. When the music does call for the presence of the right hand on the instrument immediately before or immediately after the Bb, it is impossible to vent the side Bb hole without some degree of discontinuity or imperfection in the performance of the musical passage.
While there have been other fingering systems designed to obtain a pure Bb, such as the Mazzeo system, these other systems disadvantageously involve alterations of basic clarinet fingering patterns.
Accordingly, there has long been a need for an improved clarinet which provides for a Bb that is pure in pitch and tone quality, and that may be obtained without removing the right-hand first finger from its position above or on the finger hole. The present invention fulfills this need.